UH Receives Major Contract for Inouye Solar Telescope Instrument

A rendering of the Cryogenic Near Infrared Spectropolarimeter. Credit: IfA/UH

The National Science Foundation and the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope (DKIST) have announced the award of a major contract to the University of Hawaii Institute for Astronomy to build the Cryogenic Near Infrared Spectropolarimeter (CryoNIRSP) for the new solar telescope, which is now under construction on Haleakala.

This complex $5 million instrument will allow astronomers to measure the solar magnetism beyond the sun in order to understand how that energy interacts with Earth’s space environment. It will be built at the UH Advanced Technology Research Center on Maui and will be completed in time for first-light observations with DKIST in 2019.

The CryoNIRSP team on Maui is led by Principal Investigator Jeff Kuhn, Project Manager Tim Bond, and Instrument Scientist Andre Fehlmann.

“The CryoNIRSP instrument will be one of the largest astronomical instruments the IfA has built. It will provide the international community with a detector that brings nighttime sensitivity for observing the relatively faint outer atmosphere of the sun to the world’s largest daytime telescope,” said Kuhn.

“It is the sun’s magnetism that causes most of the sun’s influence on Earth. We know it controls the explosive energy release from the sun that damages our technology and the sun’s brightness variability that affects our climate,” added Kuhn.

The DKIST was formerly known as the Advanced Technology Solar Telescope (ATST). It was renamed in honor of the late Senator Daniel K. Inouye in December 2013.

Founded in 1967, the Institute for Astronomy at the University of Hawaii at Manoa conducts research into galaxies, cosmology, stars, planets, and the sun. Its faculty and staff are also involved in astronomy education, deep space missions, and in the development and management of the observatories on Haleakala and Maunakea. The Institute operates facilities on the islands of Oahu, Maui, and Hawaii.